I totally disagree with some of the statements this man is making. And it appears he has more to come. Makes me want to tear the page right out of the mag.
S.J.
Made me look. [(-D] If you do that there will only be 67 pages left. [;)]
That may be why I didn’t tear the page into shreds. I expect that kind of garbage on that purple loving forum but never an article so one sided in my favorite 3r magizine.
I enjoy reading Lou’s column each month. This month’s article was certainly thought provoking. While I lean towards the Lionel side of the hobby and usually purchase a similar Lionel item over an MTH one, you can’t dismiss that Mr. Wolf and MTH did raise the bar for our hobby. I still remember in the early 90’s when the first Premier items came out. The locomotives were scale sized as opposed the “stubby” ones Lionel was producing and had a better price point. If memory serves, the Lionel SD60 and Dash-9 retailed for around $500.00 still back then. The Premier ones had a better (at that time) sound system (yes, I still curse it too!) more detail and scale proportions for around $300.00. I think all of that lawsuit crap and all of those burned out PS-1 boards has made some of us look at MTH in a different light. However, as I’m running my well detailed and scale sized Legacy locomotives, I can’t help but give a nod to MTH for pushing Lionel to make a better product.
I too have enjoyed his column but I did not expect an article like this one. His background summery seems accurate it’s his closing statement that irked me. Lionel and K-Line have made things that MTH copied so why should he be credited as being the almighty train company?
By Capone’s own admission, he likes to stir the pot as it were.
That being said, I would agree that Wolf poked the bear (Lionel), but I don’t feel he’s the savior of the toy trains industry.
His early products were garbage, IE Proto1, and to not support it?
Real-Trax, is only good for permanent layouts, it ain’t as hardy as FastTrack.
I own 2 MTH examples and only because they were free or very cheap.
And the cheap one cost my another $100 to get it right.
Mr. Wolf has made a large contribution to the hobby, just not as noteworthy as Mr. Capone believes it to be.
Sir James,
Lou’s column is an opinion piece. Write up who you think is the person who has most promoted the O gauge hobby in the last 20 years or so and send it in to the letters column. Don’t run down Wolf’s contributions to the hobby, shed some light on who has done more than he has.
I was not running down Mikes contributions, I just disagree that he is the almighty of 3 rail. And since there have been very few replies to this post I guess for the most part I stand alone.
One has to wonder where any of the hobby would be had Richard Kuhn not stepped in and purchased Lionel when he did. For me that was the spark that lead to where we are today.
Mike certainly has made a significant contribution though.
To me the biggest was between 2 companies K-Line ( and he had to mess himself up where he shouldn’t of ) was doing great at a better price than MTH,Lionel. The other Williams before bachmann got there hands on it and started cranking the prices. It had tradional Trains at reasonal price to where you still could add TMCC through Electric RailRoad and railsounds and have a nice engine at a nice price. Both where offering good items at good price to the average person.
I don’t blame Jerry Williams for selling as sure he was ready to retire and deserve it.
Actually to me they all have done there share.
I’m going to reserve full comment until I’ve read the article, but let me say this, most of my engines are MTH, five 4-4-0’s, one 4-6-0, one 4-6-0 Camelback, one 2-8-0, and a Norfolk and Western J 4-8-4. Three are PS-1, the rest PS-2, and I’ve never had any trouble with any of them. I’d have to say I’m a satisfied MTH customer.
This thread was about the statement Lou made in his article. MTH has made many nice offerings, but so have the others.
Pre MTH: postwar rehash.
Post MTH: improved realism.
Young minds, fresh ideas. Messiah? No. Toy train lover? Definately.
And all this time I thought that Mike Wolf, is the creator and star of American Pickers… I need to check the spelling closer.
You learn something everyday. [;)]
I have one MTH tank car and I like it, maybe I should look closer at there stuff. Most I have looked at seemed a bit out of my price range.
Great points. K-Line was making some awesome products at the time before their lawsuit and take over. To me, their intermodal cars were especially fantastic and the detail on the KCC SD75 was great. (Yes, Lionel ended up making it, but it was still K-Line designed.) I agree 100% with you on Williams. Original “Jerry” stuff was pivotable in getting me back in the hobby when I was a young, broke 20 something kid out of college. It didn’t matter if they had stamped hand rails or interchanged GE and EMD parts. They were under $150.00!! Now, the WBB stuff has a MSRP getting close to the same as the others and they don’t have command or any of the other features.
I have to say, it was K-Line that got me back into O. I had a good sized HO layout, but the dang parts were getting just too small to see clearly. The price of Lionel O semed very high after ho costs. ( did not have any Brass) But K-Line to the rescue.
My track is all Super K without the track pins( I forget what they called it), I loved the looks and nice wide curves.Except for my post war 675 and 2025, all my locos are K-line, bought used on Ebay. Most are TMCC. Have had no problems with any of my equipment or track. It is just like being a kid again.